VZCZCXRO6382
OO RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHNJ #0422 2720801
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 031301Z DEC 09 ZDS ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7266
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS NDJAMENA 000422 
 
C O R R E C T E D  C O P Y (DATE TIME GROUP CHANGE) 
 
NSC FOR MGAVIN, LETIM 
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN 
ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU 
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH 
UN ROME FOR HSPANOS 
NEW YORK FOR DMERCADO 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID PGOV PHUM SOCI PREF PREL CD
SUBJECT:  DISASTER RE-DECLARATION FOR CHAD COMPLEX EMERGENCY 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  The Republic of Chad continues to suffer from a complex 
humanitarian emergency affecting more than 1.1 million persons, 
including Sudanese and Central African refugees, Chadian internally 
displaced persons (IDPs), and other conflict-affected Chadians.  The 
disaster is beyond GOC's capacity to manage and the GOC will accept 
USG assistance.  Providing this assistance is in the USG interest. 
Charge d'Affaires therefore re-declares a disaster and requests USG 
humanitarian funding for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010.  End summary. 
 
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Background 
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¶2.  Since April 2003, more than 250,000 Sudanese from the Darfur 
region have fled their villages and sought refuge in eastern Chad, 
an undeveloped, semi-arid and resource-poor region where the local 
population struggles to survive under the best of circumstances.  As 
of September 2009, humanitarian agencies were providing assistance 
to approximately 268,000 refugees settled in twelve refugee camps. 
The refugees, many coming from agro-pastoralist backgrounds, arrived 
with an estimated 1.5 million animals, increasing pressure on scarce 
land, pasture, and water resources, and heightening tensions between 
refugee and host communities, which have occasionally led to 
conflict. 
 
¶3.  Beginning in December 2005, increased cross-border insecurity 
and inter-community conflict within Chad have exacerbated the 
humanitarian emergency.  According to the United Nations Office for 
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to date, armed opposition 
attacks, ethnic violence, cross-border raids, and banditry have 
displaced approximately 171,000 Chadians.  Some populations have 
been displaced multiple times, straining traditional coping 
mechanisms and eroding household assets. 
 
¶4.  Conflict-affected communities' basic food, water, health and 
sanitation needs remain unmet while increased population pressure 
depletes local natural resources, including water, firewood, and 
pastureland.  OCHA estimates that 700,000 people in eastern Chad 
have been affected by the influx of displaced persons in their 
communities.  Since 2005, USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster 
Assistance (OFDA) has been providing assistance to local populations 
affected by the presence of displaced populations, as well as to 
Chadian IDPs. 
 
¶5.  In FY 2009, OFDA provided nearly $9.8 million to 11 humanitarian 
organizations providing health, nutrition, water, sanitation, and 
hygiene services, agriculture and food security interventions and 
humanitarian coordination activities.  Since 2003, USAID's Office of 
Food for Peace (FFP) has been providing food assistance to Sudanese 
refugees, affected Chadians and Chadian IDPs.  In FY 2009, FFP 
provided more than $139 million in emergency food assistance.  The 
State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration 
(PRM) has supported refugee assistance in Chad since 2004.  In FY 
2009, PRM provided $45.5 million to support refugee operations in 
southern and eastern Chad. 
 
¶6.  Most aid agencies predict that the situation in Eastern Chad 
will remain tense and unpredictable as long as the Darfur conflict 
continues and Sudan-Chad border tensions persist.  Due to continued 
conflict in Darfur, as well as tensions along the Chad-Central 
African Republic border, and within Chad, humanitarian assistance to 
Chad will be required through FY 2010. 
 
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Disaster Re-declaration 
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¶7.  The humanitarian crisis in Chad is beyond the capacity of the 
GOC to manage, the GOC has requested and will accept USG assistance, 
and it is in the interest of the USG to provide the assistance. 
Therefore, Charge d'Affaires Sue L. Bremner hereby re-declares a 
disaster and requests further USG humanitarian resources for Chad in 
FY 2010. 
 
Bremner